Cardio Athletic Kickbox II

When doing this workout, I was a thoroughly intermediate exerciser. It was my second kickboxing workout, the first being Kathy Smith’s, and I used it for awhile. I bought it on Amazon.com.

It is a good workout for beginning kickboxers and/or people who prefer a slower pace than you can find in some other kickboxing workouts. Throughout the workout, he stresses and covers form issues. He also includes a low-impact modifier who is usually on screen. The background exercisers show a mix of body types and ages, something I enjoyed about the video.

After a time, I moved onto more intense kickboxing workouts. This workout just didn’t move as quickly as I wanted once I felt more comfortable with kickboxing moves.

A great follow-up to the first Cardio Athletic Kickbox! This sequel offers a workout one step up--about 5 minutes longer, a bit more variety in combos and more intensity, with Forte's same engaging charm. Forte is down-to-earth and cheerful, establishes a camaraderie with his exercisers, while leading them through interesting new combos like jab jab hook hook front-kick, roundhouse kick. You also do lots of roundhouse-side kick combos, which really helps differentiate between the two kicks. A unique sequence involves an elbow strike-down and squat--a welcome departure from the jabs, hooks and uppercuts. The music is much better than in the first video, too. Sometimes a beat will coordinate perfectly with a punch-kick sequence. That always helps mentally!

This is a good solid workout with a professional, engaging instructor who really seems to be enjoying himself. Some may think he is too chatty. The choreography is more interesting than in the first video, but overall he's part of the no-frills Power Kicks camp style of kickboxing. In fact, come to think of it he's rather compatible in style with Aaron Lankford in my opinion. Much more kicking in this sequel, thus the intensity is greater--like high intermediate to low advanced.